Nearly two years after the first death due to COVID-19 was identified, the pandemic continues to challenge families around the world: Many are losing loved ones, experiencing disruptions to vital care and health services, and facing great economic insecurity. While the available evidence indicates the direct impact of COVID-19 on child and adolescent mortality is limited,1 the indirect mortality effects of the pandemic – resulting from over-stretched health systems, disruptions to care-seeking and preventative interventions like vaccination and nutrition, household income loss, lockdowns, masking, handwashing and social distancing – are not yet well understood. This lack of clarity is particularly acute in the many low- and middle-income countries that do not have well functioning surveillance and data systems.